Reporter
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
There are 3974 articles by Bill Dries :
Car lots and gas stations are getting more scrutiny from the Memphis City Council. But the idea of a proposed used car lot on Old Austin Peay Highway becoming a bike and kayak rental business instead is a new twist.
Morgan is in his second term on the City Council, which has a limit of two consecutive terms. Contenders for county offices in the May Democratic and Republican primaries can’t begin pulling petitions to get on the ballot until Dec. 20.
The nomination of Dr. Michelle Taylor as the new Shelby County Health Department director drew fire Wednesday, July 21, with distribution of a May memo to Mayor Lee Harris that said a search panel recommended not picking Taylor and continuing the search.
The long awaited permit clears the way for the park’s redesign to begin moving dirt and creating new features in Tom Lee Park after a three-year planning process that has seen the plans change over time.
A vote Monday by the Shelby County Commission on a new voting system could mean new voting machines by the May county primary elections.
Shelby County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. wants the county to get the bonuses to county workers in the next pay period. County Mayor Lee Harris says the county needs to be sure the use of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds is allowed before it cuts checks.
TVA officials outlined remediation plans that include trucking treated coal residue to a private landfill near Memphis International Airport.
The precinct site sold for $3.5 million after being appraised at $6 million, setting up a council debate about whether to take the best offer now or wait for a better one. Council approves centerpiece of Downtown parking reconfigurationRelated stories:
The council also gave final approval Tuesday to new historic overlay districts in Crosstown and Vollintine-Evergreen, took its first vote on a pipeline infrastructure review board and passed an ordinance banning landlords from putting the belongings of those they evict on city rights of way.
The council also takes up the vote delayed two weeks ago on the sale of the old Union Avenue police station in Midtown, a car lot in Raleigh and takes the first of three votes on restrictions of future oil pipelines within the city.
If masks have been the face of the nation’s political divide during the pandemic, what are COVID vaccinations?
The author of the definitive 2008 biography of the anti-lynching crusader and NAACP cofounder says the statue of Wells defines the city as well as honors her in a city whose leaders once talked of killing her.
A new monument on Beale Street honors the 19th century school teacher, journalist and anti-lynching figure. The recognition comes 130 years after Wells left the city just ahead of a mob that ransacked her newspaper office.
The collaborative with more than 150 local nonprofits is to tackle long-terms needs and problems in the same rapid and sustained way the countywide COVID task force has handled the local response to the pandemic.
Blackburn’s recent speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas was all-China, echoing some of the concerns made by then-Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson during his tenure.
The council’s discussion last week about a car lot in Raleigh could be about some larger changes in zoning. Normally the representative of a district gets final say on the zoning, but that’s not how this is going.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation originally identified nine spots beyond the damage spotted in May that shut down all traffic on the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, but that has increased to 16.
The Byhalia Connection Pipeline is over but a burgeoning environmental movement, with the city’s underground water aquifer at its center, remains. The road to that movement began with the rise of the city’s new activism several years ago, with some unexpected twists and turns along the way.Related stories:
During the Monday meeting at the White House with Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis and other police chiefs, President Biden said federal, state and local coordination is essential to his violent crime strategy.
The city’s list of those allowed in City Hall only with a police escort grew to 81 in a wave of protests in 2016 and 2017.
Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division began the process Monday, July 12, of soliciting proposals for possibly cutting ties to the Tennessee Valley Authority, its electric power provider for the past 80 years.
The Tennessee Valley Authority supplies electric power to Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division. But the possibility of MLGW leaving TVA is also a part of the issue with the city’s water supply and its safety. Out of the pipeline: The city's water movement and how it evolvedRelated stories
The short answer is more complexity and more ambition and probably more litigation. Out of the pipeline: The city's water movement and how it evolvedRelated stories:
The son of one-time topless nightclub kingpin Danny Owens drew a sentence below federal guidelines for drug conspiracy.
National Civil Rights Museum President Russell Wigginton said on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast that he hopes state education officials will consult with the museum as they set the guidelines for school systems to navigate the new state law banning teaching about systemic racism and how the history of race impacts the present.